Good Samaritan replaces stolen memorial stone on mum’s grave
A GOOD Samaritan has stepped in and replaced a stolen memorial stone for free after a thief took it from a grave.
Phillip Smallcombe, a director of a chain of South Wales funeral homes, was appalled when he heard the heart-shaped memorial had gone missing.
He acted after reading the news in a post put on Facebook by Sue Sharland from Bridgend.
Sue, 53, and her friends had often commented on how lovely the cream heart-shaped stone was as they walked through Nolton Church graveyard in Bridgend to weekly sessions at the Mental Health Matters wellbeing hub in the church hall.
Then one day they noticed the stone was not there.
Sue approached Joan Thomas whose grandson had originally placed the stone, inscribed with a verse, on his mother’s grave after she had died aged 52 and asked what happened.
“I was absolutely devastated when she said it had disappeared and she presumed it had been stolen,” said Sue.
“Joan told us about her daughter and how her grandson, who is autistic, had bought the stone and taken it there to put it by his mum’s memorial.”
Sue said she and her friends decided to search the area in case it had been taken and dropped, but had no luck.
“You can’t get any lower than stealing from somebody’s grave,” she added.
Sue was so disgusted she wrote about the theft in a post on Facebook and Phillip, who is also a fulltime Detective Constable with South Wales Police in Cardiff, responded.
He and Sue joined Joan at the grave of her daughter Catherine Anne Brown to present her with a new cream, heart-shaped memorial stone, which is also inscribed with a verse.
It will be cemented in place to make sure it doesn’t go missing again.
Phillip, who is a director of Seren Funeral Homes, said: “I thought to myself, ‘What can I do to make this right?’
“This woman has been through enough and I know from personal experience how attached you can get to the mementos you leave at the grave of a loved one.
“Some unthinking individual has probably, through drink or stupidity or being awful, has taken the stone and then probably just thrown it away.”